When I left RL Hughes primary school in Ashton in Makerfield on March 5th with Monty little did I know what the next few months would hold.

We had visited as part of World Book day and apart from reading stories and the children having the chance to meet Monty, the theme of the day was for the pupils to write a story about when Monty met Albie, the school dog.

There was to be a competition to pick the best stories with the winners presented with their prizes in a special assembly with Monty and I in attendance. Needless to say it never happened. But this wasn’t a one-off, we had been really busy around the whole of World Book Day with some Eight schools in Ten days. We also had around 40 more schools booked for 2020 along with numerous shows and events.

When everything ground to a halt due to the pandemic is was difficult for most of it to get our heads around but for Monty it was sudden and unknown change to his very busy ‘working ‘ life and it affected him massively. For the fist few weeks he went to the front door every day, expectant, excited and sure that any moment he’d be in the back of the car and off to meet the next few hundred '‘mini hoomans’ that was very much his life.

As the lockdown was announced and our world changed I honestly hadn’t thought how much this sudden change would affect Monty but he’s always been a working dog in a real sense and he’s had a very full life of employment.

As he nears his 10th Birthday, little did we know when we brought home this cute seven week-old puppy what an effect he’d have, not just on our lives but literally thousands of others.

As Monty grew we were shocked and amazed by the amount of attention he got just walking down the street. Every walk was an adventure and every day an experience. I decided early on to write everything down as there were so many funny and strange events when you were with Monty that I didn’t want to forget any. This became a blog I guess, although that was never the intent. I just decided it would be funnier if the stories were through his eyes and so Life According to Monty Dogge was born on Facebook.

We were out all of the time with Monty, for one because it was fun but also because we knew we needed to get him really well socialised. Newfoundland’s are by nature wonderfully good tempered and patient dogs but they remain just that, dogs. When you see wonderfully well behaved dogs whatever their breed you know that a lot of work has gone in to get them to that stage. This was so important with a dog that when adult would be weighing around 13 stone (180lbs) or roughly 82 kg. So began the socialisation of a huge and getting bigger-by-the-day puppy that, unbeknown to us, would be the start of a wonderful adventure.

I’d really wanted a Newfoundland so I could take him water training because after all that’s what they do right? Despite taking him to a club and him even eventually passing his water rescue test he decided it wasn’t for him, and when Monty decides he doesn’t want to do something then he isn’t doing it. At that point I was disappointed but little did I know what adventures were just around the corner.

One of the things I did a lot was to take Monty shopping. By that I mean I would stand outside a busy supermarket with Monty while Dawn, my wife would go in. This served the purpose of helping Monty’s development but also had the added benefit of getting me out of trudging around a busy store. It was during one of these trips that a veteran was collecting for the Poppy Appeal outside of the store. I got chatting to him whilst we stood waiting. I have always been a big supporter of our armed forces and my youngest son Sam was just finishing his service as a Royal Marine. Bob the veteran was also a dog lover so the conversation flowed easily and we got on instantly.

As we chatted the normal thing happened, Monty had a queue forming. There was an endless stream of people wanting to ask about him, stroke him, or simply recount stories of their own beloved pets. This had an unexpected and positive effect on Bob’s Poppy stall with the extra crowd adding to his ‘business’. When Dawn finally came out of the shop Bob jokingly asked her if we could stay all day as takings had never been as good.

Though it was said light heartedly I thought about it on the journey home and said to Dawn I was going to pop back up and see if we could help out a little more. To cut a long story short we stopped all day and then every other day until the appeal was over. Monty was amazing, it was like he was born for the role and he absolutely revelled in having people around him all day long. Bob had being collecting for 20 years at the store and this was to be his best total ever which was amazing. We had become friends at the end and when he asked if we’d come back the following year I agreed immediately.

The following year we were there all day every day for two weeks. Cookie gave Monty some days off and she also had fun meeting everyone and repaying their donation to the British Legion with a slobbery kiss. That year beat the following one and the popularity was such that Monty had a visit from the Lady Mayoress, the press and even a cuddle from Jenny Meadows our local Olympic hero.

Bob retired that year and asked if we’d take over and carry on to which I agreed. We stayed for another two years until it was decided to make some changes, but in that time Monty had helped to raise over £40,000 for the Poppy appeal. I’m still really proud of those four years and what we raised and I know it wouldn’t have been the same without the big fella.

Being in the public so much meant that I was increasingly being asked if we’d visit places such as nursing homes and day centres. I was always amazed at how shocked they were when I said we never charged anything for our visits. It was very moving to visit and meet so many people who’s faces just lit up when they saw Monty. So many who recounted wonderful stories of past pets and it was very moving and I often left with slightly damp eyes.

I always had to make it a rule for us to visit when there was no food around as this is definelty Monty’s weakness and where training and socialisation seems to go out of the window faster than a teenagers boyfriend when the parents return. The residents however loved to smuggle biscuits away for when Monty visited and they would suddenly pull them out at the worst time, usually when he was surrounded by frail admirers and I would have to hold him back before he sent them flying in his attempt to reach the prohibited digestive.

After a while the nursing homes explained they had a budget for visits so we came up with the idea of taking the money for the charity we were helping at that particular point. It became a nice addition to their coffers and made me feel better about taking anything for what felt like just the right thing to do. Monty even visited on Christmas eve with his cart and we gave all of the residents presents we’d bought which was put lots of smiles on faces which was lovely.

The charity theme continued via the blog as we released a Christmas special poem, the night before Cwissymouse by Monty which was very popular. It was so popular that we decided to ask for a donation if people wanted to receive it. Again the huge generosity of Monty’s friends made it a huge success and we followed it each year with The Newftivity (featuring Ricky Gervais), Monty Home Alone and A Monty Cwissymouse Carol. In total we raised over £10,000 for charities including Canine Partners, Hounds for Heroes and Pilgrim Bandits.

The blog continued to gain popularity with around 4000 following the daily tales of Monty and the rest of the gang from Wigwam. I then got asked by the Kennel Club if we’d like to appear at Crufts and do the blog live from there. I had to check if they wanted to edit the content and had they actually seen what I wrote? They assured me they didn’t want to change anything, they wanted it just how Monty saw it. That saw us spend the next four years visiting the show for four days every year and reporting live through the eyes of a huge black and white Newfoundland.

I was amazed that even at Crufts with all of those thousands of dogs we still couldn’t move more than a few feet without being stopped. Somebody once said that before they’d met Monty they had seen him walking locally. Their first impression was that there is a dog with a really high opinion of himself and it’s the best description I’ve ever heard….that’s Monty.

When the Kennel Club decided to move away from bloggers at the show it was a blessing in disguise really because things were really busy and the whole show timetable was getting a bit much for Monty. It was around this time in 2017 that the first book came out and things were to take another major exciting turn.

I had thought for a long while about bring a book out and our amazing followers on Facebook were also very vocal about it. I was very lucky that as a self-published author I knew there were some sales already waiting but whether I’d ever cover the initial outlay was another matter. I’m not a Pandacow came out in March 2017 and was the story of Monty as a puppy, teased by other dogs because of his size. He didn’t know what he was so got called a Pandacow and the story centres around him trying to find out who and what he is. We launched the book at Waterstones with a story time and book signing session and that will always go down as one of my proudest days.

Well it was a great success and down to our amazing friends, fans and followers six more Monty stories have followed and continue to sell pretty well for a self-published author. When the book came out we were asked by my grandchildren’s headteacher if we’d visit school and read the story to the children. It was amazingly popular with the pupils who actually had the star of a book sitting in front of them and Monty was delighted with the queue of mini hoomans waiting to give him a stroke.

This was to be just the beginning because I soon realise how much schools and teachers speak to each other. We were asked to visit schools around Wigan, then the North West and then all over the country. We went to Scotland, the midlands and Yorkshire and Monty absolutely loved every minute of it. I decided from the start that I wouldn’t charge anything for the visits and this has enabled us to visit many schools in all areas of the country.

We started getting wonderful emails back from teachers and headteachers about how Monty’s visit had inspired children to read and even write their own stories. This was particularly satisfying because the results were coming with children who the schools had found difficult to engage with books. We were getting more and more requests to visit and Cookie has had to deputise a few times when there were really busy periods.

We have visited around 120 schools until the lockdown including many SEN schools where Monty’s visits are particularly enjoyed. We’ve had stories written about Monty, book ideas and even a full book I’m not a Pandadog written and performed at one of our school visits. In each of these visits Monty has behaved perfectly and has never flinched whatever the noise volume of a normal school day. He has even snored though an assembly which had the children giggling and the teachers envious.

The success of the books even led to a fundraiser by one of Monty’s good friends in Baltimore who raised funds to give free books to a reading project in the city. We also donated 80 books to Wigan schools after generous donations from our Facebook family.

Obviously Covid19 has brought an end to all of this and more. We were due at DogFest and the National Pet show this year and were due to make our third visit to the wonderful Dog Lovers Show in Glasgow who build us a purpose built Monty Storytime area for his hordes of fans. We have also done a library tour in Wigan again free for the residents of the town and we appeared at the inaugural Winterfest event last Christmas in the storytelling marquee.

Monty has gradually got used to daily life being very different and he has stopped rushing to the door every morning which is a little sad to see but this won’t be for ever and I’m sure he’ll soon be back to what he loves the most. Though he’s fast approaching his tenth birthday which is getting on for a Newfie he’s very fit and still enthusiastic……just ask the postyman.